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Released January 13th, Knothole Island marks the first downloadable content for the much loved and only just recently released Fable II. As a matter of fact, the quick arrival of this adventure expansion raises an eyebrow or two. Is it really possible this content were cut from the game only to resell it at a later date? Possibly. That said, one would be hard pressed to argue that Fable II were a disappointment with regard to depth of content - there's a lot of play time in the full retail disc. We're then left with whether Knothole Island is worth the 800 Microsoft Points. Long story short: It is.
Mark: It should go without saying, but your experience in Knothole Island will be directly related to how much you enjoyed Fable II. If you happened to enjoy Fable II, then Knothole Island feels like slipping back into an old, familiar, and very comfortable pair of slippers - a pleasantly friendly experience all around. If you're at all curious of our take on the full game, you can read Jim's kind words here, or mine here.
Knothole Island is stuck in a perpetual winter when you arrive. Not surprisingly, you're quickly tasked by the town mayor to seek out the relics that will grant the people of Knothole Island the ability to control their weather. What follows is a lengthy-ish main adventure in comparison to other Fable II adventures. It won't take you long to complete, but it is certainly rewarding in many respects.
Immediately one will notice that Knothole Island is refreshingly distinct from anything else they may have encountered in the rest of Albion. The snowfall effect is quietly, subtly beautiful, and the typically gorgeous sunrises and sunsets find equally captivating vistas to express themselves here. After some play time you will be able to manipulate Knothole Island's different "states", so to speak, reinforcing the uniqueness of this adventure in relation to all the others you've played.
Level design in particular is the best the game has seen, what with the dynamic elements at play, ones I would rather not give away. There are several states of Knothole Island to explore, several dungeons, different paths and rewards only accessible during certain configurations and so on. Suffice to say I wish there had been more of this in the full retail disc. That said, it does bode well for future content that Lionhead may have up its sleeve.
Besides the main adventure, the acheivement-prone amongst us will be happy to note that three new acheivements for a total of an extra 100 gamer points come with the download. In fact, a few of these achievements are linked to tertiary quests that have rewards of their own, and will certainly extend your playtime. But more to the point, Knothole Island is a veritable shopping spree of unique items of just about every category. The brilliant sense of reward and progress in Fable II is only heightened here.
Your faithful canine companion will have plenty to sniff out and fetch for you. As you progress through the Island, you'll uncover piece-by-piece what is easily the most impressive outfit featured in the game. But this barely scratches the surface of the cornucopia of unique goods on offer. Many augments, clothes, potions, weapons, and other character modifications are only available on Knothole Island, and offer up enough unique effects and looks that Microsoft could have marketed and sold an expansion featuring these items alone.
Knothole Island, while not a very lengthy gameplay experience or large swath of land, keeps improving the further into it's mysteries you explore. And in classic Fable II fashion, you'll be faced with a moral choice at the end. It is as captivating as the full game was, but is easily one of the better, if not the best adventure out of all the Fable II quests on offer. By packing in the goodies as densely as possible per every square inch, it is difficult to imagine how the Fable II lovers amongst us wouldn't find Knothole Island worth their time and money.
Jim: The first images of Knothole Island set my imagination aflutter. A snowy setting. Dark demons straight out of Ico. It all just looked so ...bad ass. Maybe that's why the expansion has left me so surprised. I may have enjoyed it, but it was certainly more of a head-scratchy good chuckle time than I was expecting. Puzzle elements and requisite humor aside though, I can honestly say that everything in the expansion makes for an excellent addition to the Fable universe.
It'll take a few hours to complete, but the Knothole Island quest felt pretty by the numbers. It offered some level design that was distinctly more puzzle-oriented than what we've seen before, but nothing so far out that it didn't feel like a fit with the series. NPC's involved in the quest like the mayor retain that same dry British humor we've come to love, and seeing the same environment under three vastly different weather conditions put a neat spin on what would have otherwise been a small area.
I guess my only real complaint is that there wasn't more of it. For an 800 point expansion to a 20+ hour game, I just expected to get a good 6-8 hours of gameplay. That wasn't the case here. It offered just enough to whet my appetite and have me dive right back into all the quests I hadn't finished on the disc.
New items play a big part in the Knothole Island expansion as well. The new items that have been added to the game are not only cool because of what they are, but also how you get them. Gold just doesn't cut it in the new shop Box of Secrets. You'll need to journey back to the mainland and find specific items to trade for the mystery gifts within. The items in Box of Secrets range from weapons to clothing, and a lot of these are the best the game has to offer. Not only is Hal's Rifle a fantastic tribute to the assault rifle in Halo, but it's a kick ass piece of artillery that knocks down bad guys like dominoes. My new staff is pretty much the same thing. The content in Box of Secrets along is reason enough to pick up the expansion for the Fable faithful.
While I may not have enjoyed the main quest as much as Mark did, I couldn't have been happier to play around in Knothole Island. Why? Because it brought me back to Fable II. Sure things started off as fiddling with the new content, but I quickly found myself diving into some of the quests on the original disc I hadn't finished. And that's what Knothole is -- a reminder of just how good Fable II really was. If you're looking to return to the experience, there's no better excuse than Knothole Island.
Knothole Island is an expansion pack for the Xbox 360 exclusive Fable II, and is available for 800 points through the Xbox Live Marketplace.
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Not too pleased with how short the main quest of Knothole is, either, so...*shrug*
I do like my barbarian queen outfit, so eh, meh, whatever. Got my fingers crossed that the next expansion will be a bit more interesting.